3 Replies Latest reply: Jun 3, 2014 1:46 PM by raeben3 RSS

    PDF and OTF (Postscript) font issue (is there a PDF validation tool?)

    shawninvancouver Community Member
    shawninvancouver May 23, 2014 1:04 PM

      Greetings all,

       

      I am experiencing a problem uploading any documents, which include embedded OTF (Postscript) fonts, to a Cloud based collaboration tool called Crocodoc. The problem/failure appears to occur during the document conversion from PDF to HTML5. It is important to note that this problem is not specific to Crocodoc because I have tested others (i.e. Zoho).

       

      The problem is specifically with Madcap Flare and its recent support for OTF fonts. This is how I arrived at this conclusion:

      - Changing the embedded font to TTF only, the published PDF uploads to Crocodoc without incident.

      - It is not the OTF font. I have also tested this particular OTF font with other publication tools, including Microsoft Word and Adobe Framemaker; there were no issues.

       

      Other facts:

      - PDF files appear to function normally. It is only when I upload to Crocodoc-like apps when the problem manifests itself.

       

      I subscribe to the Creative Cloud but Adobe Acrobat doesn't seem to have any validation functionality.

       

      But here are some other tests that I have done:

      - Opened the malfunctioning PDF into Acrobat (no apparent issues)

        > Saved as optimized with all discard options turned on plus I ran the sanitize option. The new saved PDF still failed to upload.

        > Removed ALL text and saved a blank page. Still failed to upload to Crocodoc

        > As a verification, I created a PDF page (from clipboard) with Acrobat and saved that (one line of font using OTF font) - This successfully uploaded to Crocodoc.

        > VERY INTERESTING...using Acrobat to CONVERT the problem PDF to eps and then eps back to PDF - This PDF uploaded successfully to Crocodoc.

           BUT there is something 'wrong' with Adobe Acrobat's conversion because it only converts the first page back into a PDF. WHAT?

       

      Conclusion, as long as the PDF originated in Flare, it will fail to upload to Crocodoc. However, converting the document to .eps and then back to a PDF seems to have stripped away the 'bad' stuff.

       

      1. What I am trying to learn is what exactly is causing the upload and conversion error?
      2. Is there a PDF validation tool and might identify what is causing this conversion problem?

       

      Sorry for the long post. Hopefully someone had the patience to read this and has an idea.

       

      Thank you

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        • 1. Re: PDF and OTF (Postscript) font issue (is there a PDF validation tool?)
          Test Screen Name CommunityMVP
          Test Screen Name May 24, 2014 5:45 AM (in response to shawninvancouver)

          Picking just one point: PDF -> EPS -> PDF. This could not possibly do more than one page, because EPS is absolutely by definition a single page format. Therefore you must choose a page when exporting PDF to EPS.

           

          Validation: no full validator exists but various validators exist in Acrobat Preflight.

           

          Surely, what you are identifying is a limitation, problem or bug with Crocdoc, whatever that is, and is something to take up with its authors. You seem to be assuming that must be working OK, therefore the PDF must be wrong.

          • 2. Re: PDF and OTF (Postscript) font issue (is there a PDF validation tool?)
            shawninvancouver Community Member
            shawninvancouver May 26, 2014 3:27 PM (in response to Test Screen Name)

            Hello TSN,

             

            Test Screen Name wrote:

             

            Picking just one point: PDF -> EPS -> PDF. This could not possibly do more than one page, because EPS is absolutely by definition a single page format. Therefore you must choose a page when exporting PDF to EPS.

             

            Thanks for your response.

             

            I was thinking Microsoft... which has allowed multi-page eps files for years. But you're correct, this is normally an unsupported .eps format.

             

            I solved the problem over the weekend by doing the following:

             

            1) I removed the suspect OTF font family but despite doing so, the folder still had two 'corrupted' but unused copies of an italic font. They refused to remove so I had to boot into Win7 SAFE mode to remove.

            2) After complete removal of the OTF font family. I reinstalled the OTF font *BUT* only from a different repository (oddly, this other OTF font set is slightly larger per font).

            3) Once installed, I tested with Flare, published and uploaded to Crocodoc SUCCESSFULLY. Yeah!

             

            I don't have anymore time to test but the questions remain, such as, was it one or more of the following issues:

            a) Flare has a problem handling some OTF fonts or cannot error correct (the way other programs do) for marginal fonts or font errors?

            b) Was it the two corrupted fonts in the Windows/fonts folder?

            c) Was it the slightly different OTF fonts that I am no longer using?

             

             

            Take care

            • 3. Re: PDF and OTF (Postscript) font issue (is there a PDF validation tool?)
              raeben3 Community Member
              raeben3 Jun 3, 2014 1:46 PM (in response to shawninvancouver)

              There is a problem with some OpenType Fonts (OTF)  on Windows machines. They are simply not recognized.  OTF fonts with postscript outlines are not compatible with all versions of MS Word and probably not with other word processing programs running under Windows.   This is all very strange, since OTF fonts were the "answer" to compatibility problems between Mac and Windows just a few years ago.  But apparently things have changed.

               

              I see you have discovered this by removing the OTF fonts and installing a different set.  I'm betting the problem OTF fonts have postscript outlines and the ones that work do not.  Just a guess.

               

              I don't think this is an Adobe Acrobat problem, I think it's a problem which somehow originates with Microsoft's products not recognizing Postscript Opentype fonts.

               

              To avoid this problem in the future use True Type Fonts (TTF)  or OTF fonts with a TTF outline.  There are conversion utilities which will convert OTF with Postscript to Truetype -- I don't know how good they are.

               

              What a pain--going to TrueType is a giant step backwards. Talk to Microsoft.  This problem originated with them.  OTF with Postscript outline work fine on Mac, and they've been around as long as OTF. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenType